Ad Hoc Wireless Networks: Architectures and Protocols

Providing a convenient routing protocol for MANETs is a challenge because of the dynamic topology. Therefore, the suitability of each routing protocol depends on many parameters such as, network size, node mobility speed, andtraffic load. All that, together with the dynamic nature of MANETs, made an optimum routing protocol selection a complicated task. Extensive nodal mobility of MANETs makes multi-hop routinga genuine challenge. The frequent topology changes and variable propagation conditions make a routing table obsolete very quickly, whichresults in enormous control overhead for route discovery and maintenance. In this book we develop and present a new hybrid routing protocol called Multipath Distance VectorZone Routing Protocol, which is referred to as MDVZRP. In MDVZRP we assume that all the routes in the routing table are active and usable at anytime, unless the node received or discovered a broken link. There is no need to periodicallyupdate the routing tables, therefore reducing the periodic update messages and hence reducing the control traffic in the entire network. The protocol guarantees loop freedom and alternative disjoint paths.